The Wild Man and the Chief of Police
by Darkwood Princess
Summary: Sometimes there is truth to that old phrase: opposites attract. Five times Bumi told Lin he loved her and one time she told him. Bumi/Lin Now including the five times Iroh interrupted them, and the one time he brought them together.
1. Five Times He Loved Her

AN: This was written on a long car ride but inspired by my sister after a late night conversation. I hope no one hates the pairing… I thought it was kinda cute. Oh well, "If we shadows have offended…"

**Five Times Bumi Told Lin He Loved Her and One Time She Told Him…**

_One: _Everyone who knew Bumi as a child knew, at the least, one thing about him.

The kid was transparent.

If he liked you, you knew it. If he hated you, you felt it. If he loved you? Well watch out, because the little mad genius had a charm that came from unpredictability and a genuiness that few others possessed.

Only one girl was immune to the whirlwind that was Bumi, and that girl, to Bumi's utter consternation, was the one he truly loved: Lin, daughter of Toph, his favorite aunt and co-conspirator in mischief of all kinds.

So, when 17 year Bumi saw Lin falling for his stoic older brother Tenzin, he devised an epic plan involving his brother, fireworks, and 100 pounds of rotten cabbage. Needless to say, Tenzin and Lin were less than pleased when Bumi's plan backfired and all three of them ended up drenched in rotten vegetable while fireworks crowded the sky in bright red and greens.

"What were you thinking Bumi?" Tenzin's calm demeanor was gone, replaced by a fire that proved the air-nomad-in-training was indeed Katara's son as well as Aangs.

" I was thinking," Bumi's voice quavered little as he stared at the silent Lin and furious Tenzin, "That I love you Lin." He stuck his tongue out at his brother.

"Yeah," Lin gave him a cool sarcastic look. "Well I like clean clothes." And with that she walked off, leaving Tenzin and Bumi alone.

Tenzin's eyebrows would have continued twitching for an hour if Bumi hadn't thrown the first cabbage…

An hour later…

"Why is cabbage man billing me for all these cabbages? I already paid him for the ones destroyed in the past!" Aang stared in shock at the bill and then understood as two boy shaped cabbage mounds passed through the kitchen, followed by an irate Katara. Aang just had to ask.

"Uhm, honey?"

"Young love, Aang. Young love."

"And the cabbages?"

"Collateral damage."

"Ahhh." Aang did not envy the two boys as water hosed into them.

_Two:_ Bumi was never a very good spy as a teenager. His Uncle Sokka, who claimed to be a spy of the first degree, had declared him useless. But Bumi didn't care. He'd just hit the metaphorical mother load. He'd listened in on a conversation between his crush Lin and his unrelated-but-still-claimed-as-an-uncle Firelord Zuko.

"Of course I love your skunk-fish cakes." Lin had remarked, chewing on the delicacy. If he had paid more attention, the young spy might have noticed Momo sitting under the table, devouring most of what Lin 'ate'. But notice he did not and, a hard afternoon of his learning to bake later, Lin opened her bedroom door to the pungent smell of skunk-fish pastries.

"What in Agni's name is that stench?" She gingerly stepped in noticing the three hundred or so pies with shock and confusion. The confusion melted away when she noticed the centerpiece, a heart shaped pie with distinctively elaborate icing letters. For a rough around the edges boy, Bumi had deceptively beautiful calligraphy.

" ' _I baked what you love, it's true. To prove how I feel about you!' " _

Lin wanted to scream in frustration. She settled for getting Kya and pelting the unsuspecting Bumi and Tenzin with smelly pies.

Lin hated skunk-fish.

_Three_: Lin was never sure when she had become friends with the rather wild brother of her boyfriend. Furthermore, she was unprepared for the letters that poured in from the young man when he went off to join the United Military, and even more prepared for the emotions they evoked…

_Hey Lin, _

_I'm doing general boot camp now. It's lots of fun. NOT! _

_ I've been ordered to do camp dishes 17 times. It's alright, I invented_

_ A machine to do them all at once…_

_ Except it exploded._

_ How's the police academy work going?_

_ Love,_

_ Bumi_

_ Hey Lin,_

_ I'm being promoted! Someone high up saw my moving-ship-catapult_

_design and they're putting me on the fast track! There are a lot of _

_benders who got passed up for this opportunity, so I must be special, right?_

_Love,_

_Bumi_

_ Lin,_

_We're heading into dangerous territory . I may not be able to write for _

_a while,. Stay safe and watch out for Tenzin, he needs someone like you_

_in his life. Even though he said you're now just friends, he'll need you _

_more than ever. He's a bit clingy. =)_

_Love as always,_

_Bumi_

Worry for the outgoing daredevil was new to Lin, and, like all the unwanted emotions in her life, Lin buried them deep.

No one ever found the hundreds of unposted responses hidden under her bed in the police academy dorm.

_Four_: Most of the Equalists had fled the city with Amon's defeat, but as in all revolutions, a few hung on, remnants of a less than pleasant prediction.

Commander Bumi, a non-bender himself, had little sympathy for these rebels, little sympathy for those who turned on their fellows when the going got rough.

So, as he found himself listening to a man with baboon sideburns, Bumi wondered why these people were so easily misguided. His musings vanished when the impudent little man began boasting of those who had been equalized.

"The probenders got it! The Avatar got it! And the chief of police herself got it! Death to benders! Amon may be gone, but-" The man's voice cut off as he was lifted bodily off the ground.

"What do you mean 'got it'." The Fleet commander's voice was deadly calm, belying the fury running through him.

"Speak up, or I'll turn you into the newest fuel for a Satomobile. Trust me, I've done it to men far worse than you monkey face."

"Just that sir…Chief Beifong was equalized. And, ya know what? You can't –" the man's voice trailed off as Bumi launched him towards the park's pond.

"Can't what?" Bumi's voice was furious and lost at the same time. He knew that many had been effected, but not who. Now that he knew...?

Bumi found himself sitting in a jail cell a couple hours later. Even the commander of the United Nations Fleet couldn't get away with constructing a giant slingshot and catapulting the remaining equalists into a few handy dumpsters.

It was then that he saw her.

A little thinner than usual, her hair neatly pinned, the only indication of something off were the shadows under her eyes and the civilian clothes.

"Oh, Lin." Bumi breathed, thankful that Iroh wasn't standing in front of him. The kid would either have wanted to know the reason Bumi was playing "Chuck the Equalist" or would have wanted to know why he wasn't invited to join in.

"Oh, Bumi. Tell me why I'm bailing your sorry butt out of jail. The voice was tough, but he knew better. Lin always hid her feelings. Those who knew her well could decipher them, and what Bumi saw now was pain.

"Because I stood up for you. Because I stood up for all the benders whose lives have been destroyed. Because I hate to see smug idiots boast about the horrors of war. Because the equalist are cowards with big weapons. Because," he stared at her, voice serious, eyes dark with emotions, "I love you and can't bear to see you hurt."

For a moment Lin was quiet and the "Come on Bumi, you can stay with me." The door unlocked and the former earthbender and current commander walked out of the precinct.

_Five: _As a houseguest Bumi was surprisingly neat. What he never expected was the messiness that was Lin Beifong.

What he expected even less from the newly returned, newly restored earthbender was the sudden illness that came over her.

She was throwing up, running a fever, and coughing so badly that had she been an airbender the small flat would have had no roof. And yet, stubborn Lin refused to see a doctor.

So Bumi was now a nursemaid.

"Drink the soup Lin, it's good for you."

He coaxed the half delirious woman as he sat by her bedside.

"I don't want it."

"But you need to eat it."

"Says who?"

She had been like this when they were young, able to hold her ground even in a hurricane of blows and words.

"If you don't eat it, I'm going to go get Tenzin. He'll force you to drink it." The normally upbeat man felt a pang of jealousy thinking about his brother's ability to convince the unmovable Lin.

"Go ahead. I'll just dump it on him."

"Lin. We don't dump soup on people."

"Mom did. She dumped it right down Yakone's pants at that fancy dinner party when we were 10." Bumi tried not to laugh at the memory, at a time when so much had been simpler and the crazy bloodbender hadn't launched the pebble which ended in an avalanche named Amon.

"Please Lin, for me?" with anyone else Bumi would have simply held their mouth open and tipped the soup in, but not with Lin, never with her.

"Do you love me Bumi?" The question threw the sideburned commander off guard. He stared at her in confusion and hope.

"Of course, Lin why?"

"Because if you really loved me, you'd throw the soup away." Bumi sighed and tipped the broth into a nearby plant.

"You win, Lin, you win."

**AN: Review if you like it. The plus one is already written and will be posted when I get a chance. Bumi for the win!**


	2. One Time She Loved Him

**AN: I didn't know so many people would like this story. You can all thank my sister for giving me the idea. **

_Plus One: _Lin knew many things about herself. She knew she was stronger than most men, self-sufficient and a capable warrior. What she didn't know was why the news of the 'wedding' bothered her and why she was currently booking this petty criminal more harshly than usual.

The young gang member rubbed his sore wrists as she slammed the cell door on him and walked away.

"Is something bothering you Lin?" Tenzin's calm voice was the last thing she wanted to hear right now.

"No Tenzin." Even her voice was tense, a growl not meant for long time friends.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure! Just because the oaf has told me he loved me every day since we were kids, got thrown in jail for me, wrote me letters every day, and, get this, took care of me while I was sick as a skunk-fish, and now is getting married does not mean I'm not okay. I'm fine! How are you?"

"…"

"I mean it's not like I love him, Agni no! He's just scruffy, and rowdy and charming… and ah heck no." Her voice dropped off as she realized what she should have known all along.

"Goodbye Tenzin. I have to be somewhere else suddenly." Lin turned and ran out the door.

"Glad to be of service?"

XXX

Bumi stared at his reflection in the mirror and wondered why the Tuxedo, a new fashion altogether, was suddenly so popular. He didn't feel any different. Maybe more like a monkey, but definitely not any more elegant. But weddings required the new fashion and they insisted he wear it.

Bumi was just turning around when he was thrown backwards against the mirror. Defensive instincts would have kicked in had he not noticed that his 'attacker' was in fact Lin. He was less prepared for what happened next.

Lin kissed him.

"I love you, you idiot. Please don't get married. It wouldn't be right since I just figured out how I feel. I was wrong all these years."  
Bumi stood there in shock, only able to mutter, "But it's not my wedding. It's a friends." Lin froze.

"What?"

"It's my friend Anagan, she's getting married and I… Lin you just said you loved me!" He let out a gleeful whoop.

"I…I did not," Lin stuttered, backing out of the door.

"Yes you did Lin Beifong, you said that you loved me!" Bumi started to do a victory dance on the spot.

"…"

"It's okay most women do. Love me that is." Bumi didn't dodge fast enough as the earthen block smacked him in the face and Lin stomped out, muttering about no good, lying Fleet commanders and classic misunderstandings.

Bumi continued to smile and broke down laughing when a confused Tenzin called wanting to know 'what do you mean you're getting married?'

Some things were too good to explain.

Three days later the gossip mills spotted the fleet commander and current police chief having dinner together, Bumi missed an important meeting, and Iroh wanted to know where the heck his mentor had disappeared to.


	3. Iroh's Interruptions: Bike Crash

**AN: This is for all of those people who added my story to their following list and asked that I continue this story even when I thought it was finished. I give you now… The Five Times Iroh Got in the Way and One Time He Didn't Continuation…. I hope ya'll like it :D**

General Iroh was bored.

You could only do so much work before the other leaders of the United Forces accused you of working _too hard_. So, what does one do once forcibly sent out on leave?

You sit on the docks, staring out over the bay, completely bored out of your skull.

Iroh had a whole week to himself now. So far he'd done everything he considered interesting in Republic City. He'd visited the zoo, the library, the council hall, the market place, Air Temple island, and the new moving pictures hall, what they for some reason called a nickelodeon. Perhaps it was because it cost only a nickel to enter instead of a full yuan…

He had thought that his friend Commander Bumi would have something fun to do (that man always had _something_ crazy going on) but when he'd gone to find him, the stuffy leaders of the other ships in the backup fleet had said that the commander was out. So much for getting help from the wild man.

_Briiing-ringggg, Briiiing-riingggg _

The shrill bell of a kid's bicycle gave the general an idea. He had never ridden one of the contraptions, considering his royal upbringing and overprotective parents (parents who always spazzed out a little more every time he left a port or went out on maneuvers). Maybe a bicycle would provide him with the entertainment he was seeking…  
So Iroh rented a bike from a nearby vendor and set out on his wobbly way.

He rounded a corner onto the main road along the bay, enjoying the speed that the cherry red two wheeled mechanism gave him.

"I've flown equalist planes, how hard can a bike be?" he wondered as he nearly smashed into a vender selling hot cabbage soup.

"Watch out! That's my soup you almost knocked over!" Feeling impish, Iroh turned in his seat to stick his tongue out at the angry cabbage soup merchant, and, while turned around, didn't notice the hill he was starting down.

As the bike picked up speed, screaming down the hill Iroh had only two thoughts:

_Where are the brakes on this thing!?_

And…

_Oh no, those two riders I'm coming up on are very familiar! _

Iroh's bike, completely out of his control hit the mint green bike first, knocking unsuspecting Chief of Police Lin Beifong into the air and straight into the bay.

Iroh froze in horror as Commander Bumi brought his bike to a screeching halt and grabbed the back of Iroh's jacket before he too could go flying after Lin into the cold water of Yue Bay.

"Oh crud. Lin can't swim!"

"WHAT!"

Bumi ignored the horrified general for a moment, throwing his jacket at Iroh and diving into the bay. Iroh spent a nervous minute waiting for the two of them to surface and surface they did, Lin, minus her heavy armor, sputtering like a wet cat and Bumi looking like a doused shaggy mutt. He towed her to the wall, as all who know basic life guarding would have, where Iroh offered a sheepish hand to the furious chief.

"I guess this isn't the right way to meet up again," he said apologetically as she took his hand and earthbended the floor of the bay to return her armor. Her bike was a twisted wreck though…

Lin just glared at him, sodden clothes and all, and, taking Bumi's intact bike and her wounded pride with her, got on and pedaled off, leaving the two United Force soldiers without a means of transport since Iroh's bike had also become recently intimate with the water.

"She's mad, but don't worry, she won't throw you in jail, maybe…" Bumi looked slightly disappointed as he shook like a dog, drenching Iroh in bay water.

"Maybe?"

"Well, she did try to throw her ex-boyfriend's current girlfriend in jail once upon a time, but it was a long time ago…"

Iroh flinched, but asked his question anyway…

"You aren't mad that I interrupted your ride?"

"Nah, it was worth it! Lin's expression was priceless!" The commander broke down laughing and Iroh felt an unexpected weight lift off his shoulders. Bumi had a reputation for complicated methods of revenge…

Nonetheless, Iroh wondered that evening, how the tiny, painful crab-scorpions ended up in his bed...

**AN: It's only going to get worse for Iroh from here on out… teehee =) **


End file.
